Original subtitles

You girls sure you're 15? You look older.

If we were old enough to drive, we wouldn't need a ride.

Well, why don't you two ladies make a little room

so I can slip in?

-Oh, nice. -Oh, yeah.

Hop on back, baby.

Graceful. Look at you.

Smells like my niece's playroom back here.

-Oh, great. -Barbie dolls.

Let's play.

Does that read dick?

Yeah.

Cut. All right, Moving on.

Mickey: This week on "The Core,"

the delightfully twisted Soska Sisters

are going to show you how to blaze your own destiny

and rip some dicks off along the way.

Body modification expert Luna Cobra is going to teach you

how to tattoo an eyeball.

That's right, tattoo an eyeball.

Plus, we'll look at Shudder's collection

of the best films with practical effects.

Get that CGI bullshit out of here.

Janet and Sylvia Soska are the badass writer/directors

of movies like "American Mary" and "Dead Hooker in a Trunk."

Asking permission from no man,

the twisted twins blaze their own trail

in the oft treacherous boy's club that is genre filmmaking.

The Soskas' films tell their own damn stories,

clear the way for diverse voices in filmmaking,

and rack up a sick body count.

And, speaking of bodies, today we're going to talk to them

about what they do best -- body mutilation.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having us.

So, first things first,

I'm sure you guys get this all the time.

How can I tell you two apart?

Oh, well, that's really easy.

-Sylv has only one earlobe. -What? No, I have two ears.

Wait, ow, fuck! Give it back.

Thank you. Jesus.

Well, that makes it fairly easy now.

Thank you so much. Yeah.

I want to start off with what's so great about your guys' films.

It's so satisfying seeing real kind of practical effects

done so incredibly.

You know, I think, in horror, there's always been

this discussion of CGI versus practical effects.Mm-hmm.

I was one of those practical effects, like Dick Smith,

"It has to be 100% real," kind of people.

And I was such a fan of Todd Masters,

and he does "Six Feet Under"...

Marc: No matter how nice you fix me up,

I'm still going to hell, and you know it.

..."True Blood."

He was, like, the top of the food chain

that I was going to ask, and he's such a good guy,

because everyone else should have been like,

"You don't have enough money to make what you're saying."Right.

And without his prosthetics and the beautiful practical effects,

the film wouldn't have had the same kind of impact.

You guys also act in a lot of things, as well.

Did acting lead to filmmaking?

-Actually, it did. -Yeah?

You know, I don't feel that girls,

at least when I was growing up,

were encouraged to be directors or studio heads

or writers or producers.

We're kind of just more encouraged to be actresses,

which we went with, but I'm a girl, an identical twin,

and I saw my shelf life coming up quick.

It was twin roles...

...slutty alien...

...pornographic coed.

Film school -- recommend it, don't recommend it?

How do you feel?

We went to a film school that ripped us off

and made us so pissed off we made "Dead Hooker in a Trunk."

We've decided we didn't want you to reproduce.

Do not waste your money on film school.

There's so many people that are fans of ours that I've said,

"Don't go to film school,"

and they're like, "Well, I'm going to film school."

Did I stutter? Don't go to film school.

Sylvia: Spend the money on your movie, read "Rebel Without a Crew,"

read Lloyd Kaufman's "Make Your Own Damn Movie" series,

and watch director commentaries. Yeah.

Like, Cronenberg can teach you how to direct.

We went to camera with "Dead Hooker in a Trunk"

with no money at all. None.

Sylvia: We had no budget, nothing.

And the staring faces we'd get from people

when they're like, "So what's your budget?"

And it's like, "I'm just going to pay for everything I need."

They were like, "Are you stupid?"

And I was like, "No."

I think I ripped off Kevin Smith here.

He said, "Don't write, like, a huge space epic.

Write a list of all the shit you can get for free."

-Right. -You got a muscle car?

Oh, that's going in there. You get a horse.

That was, you know, us for "Dead Hooker."

One of the real pivotal scenes in "American Mary"

is when she takes revenge on her rapist

with what she refers to as genital mutilation.Yep.

And why, to you, is genital mutilation

the worst punishment you can ever have?

Why is that so effective to you?

We live in such a society obsessed with the penis.Yeah.

Like, everything is phallic-shaped

and kind of geared towards guys,

and getting your dick chopped off is like,

"Oh, no. Please don't do it."

So that's why I want to do it,

for the "please don't do it" factor.

Well, we have a list

of your favorite genital-mutilation sequences.

-And... -Oh, our Dick List!

Penectomy list.

-Ugh. -Keeping it medical.

Medical. Without out further ado,

here is your favorite penectomy sequences.

What kind of contract?

Anyone who come to this place cannot leave without killing.

So to top the Dick List is "Hostel II."

This is the climax of the film.

It's such a great standoff.

At this point, he's had his dick out,

and she had to use her sexiness to,

you know, get herself in this situation

and get herself out of that situation.

But what I love about this is that she businesswomans

her way out of this.

She's got the money.

He's like, "Well, you got to kill someone

to be in the Hostel Club," and off it goes.

I believe this penis was made of gelatin,

but -- oh, no, that one was dog food.

That dog really liked that dick, and he's really selling it.

I think it's nice to see a character

that you hate so much just get it.

I don't know if that's how much blood comes out, but I'm glad.

You gave me some wood.

Now, I'm going to give you some fucking wood.

This is the all-star one, and I like this a lot

because there aren't a lot of celebrities

that would put themselves in a degrading position,

and you have an icon, Quentin Tarantino,

in a fucking Robert Rodriquez movie.

There's nothing sexier than that.

But the interesting thing is the penis

isn't as much coming off as it's melting off from the virus,

so it's a disgusting human being

that has a disgusting end to himself.

But he's not going to let it just go.

He just keeps going, which is kind of interesting

because you're like, "How long can this go on?"

It's kind of like it's forever.

I also want to point out it's a beautiful blend

of practical and digital effects.

As you can tell, "The Taint," it's a low-budget movie,

but even look how they paint the penis.

Look how they cheat their shots.

Look how they choose what they show and what they don't show.

A lot of handheld.

-Yeah. -It makes it real for you.

You stay and live in the moment,

and this is a perfect example of filmmakers

not having a lot

but making a lot with a little.

Let the woman go.

You are under arrest. Shit!

"Robocop."If you're going to destroy a penis,

you want to do it with a certain amount of force,

and if you're dealing with some horrible person,

you just hope that "Robocop" is going to show up.

It's got this "Punisher" vibe to it, this overkill.

And the thing is, if you ever really want to stop rape,

I think you have to go overkill to stop it.

-Help me! -He's going to kill her, man!

Man: He's going to kill her!

Your move, creep.

Okay, um... I got this medical text,

and, look, if I forget anything,

just don't panic, okay, 'cause it's -- it's right here.

-This is "Hard Candy." -Oh.

Janet: Now, this is a beautiful study in tension-building,

because you know what's happening

from as soon as she reveals who she is.

-Mm-hmm. -And it's the long game.

Sylvia: Yeah.With Patrick Wilson, you're just...

-And I love him. -...waiting for this to happen.

Leading up to this, she's talking to him,

and it kind of builds up the psychology of,

"You're a disgusting person. You prey on people."

-Absolutely. -"Now, I'm preying on you."

And there we go. And it's just awful.

Mickey: I love that he gets to watch it.

-Yeah, but we don't. -Yeah.

Sylvia: That's the best part. It's all played on the faces,

and you know exactly what's happening,

but you don't actually have to see it.

It's almost like the alien or the shark in "Jaws."

Mary: I'm changing specialties, Dr. Grant.

Have you ever heard of body modification?

In "American Mary," that was a big thing for us.

We wanted to make sure we didn't show everything,

but there's things that your mind

could fill in the blanks for.

For example, as soon as Dr. Grant

is lying there with the --

actually, that's a gynecology stretcher that's in his mouth.

Mickey: Mm-hmm.And every time people see that scene,

she's talking about the amputations,

the penis mutilation,

and that's when everybody usually walks out of the theater

just because they're like, "No." Right.

"I know what that next scene is. No."

And then you don't even see him again,

and then, when you do pick up again with the storage locker,

there's Dr. Grant in his depends, and he's got no dick.

And it's a very freeing feeling.

You know, Mickey, I have a question for you.

What is your favorite prosthetic effect?

Wow, you know, I really kind of like when skin really stretches

beyond, like, point of, like, you know, no return.

That's something that's really kind of horrifying

and makes me really cringe.

I don't like that stuff. Oh.

Makes you cringe? What about, like, castration?

I'm not really into that. What are you doing?

Come on. What? No, come on.

What the fuck?! Aaah!

What the fuck?!

Why? You're a bleeder.

So, to have a good dick removal, you need to have a good dick,

and our effects master, Jim Ogula, makes the best dicks.

-Thank you. -How'd we do that?

You could life-cast somebody.

You could sculpt something.

In this case, the sculptor actually life-cast,

supposedly his own person.

-I'd take credit too. -Yeah, right? Exactly.

So we take our dick mold, essentially,

and we cast underwear into it,

so it's all gelatin, and it sticks to it nice.

We have a blood tube in there,

so it shoots out whenever it gets cut off.

And then Mickey just slips it right on,

and then you girls do the rest.

That was a really strong piece.

What is it made with?

-This is gelatin... -Mm-hmm.

so it's tough, but you can get through it.

How did you get so much blood shooting up?

We actually had a high-pressure tank connected to it,

so we were shooting about

80 pounds per square inch of blood...

-Wow. -Wow.

-...into Mickey's own face. -Right?

This is a little invention that we came upon that's awesome,

that anybody can get.

It's basically a drain blaster,

but, by putting this on and reversing it

and cutting a piece of PVC to it,

you can load this thing up with brain matter and blood and guts,

and then you pump this thing, and then bam.

You can just sit in the back of a car seat.

That's how we did the shot in the car...

-Oh, nice! -...on the window, yeah.

I'll be real. These are some very, very nice dicks.

But we have independent filmmakers who can't afford

to make dicks Jim-quality.

What would you recommend?

Like, say somebody got, like, a rescue, a rescue dick.

Hair is always a big thing. You can just add some glue.

Once it gets tacky, you can get some --

That's just glue? That looks great.

-Yeah, you get some... -That's fantastic.

That's totally going to, like, read realism.

And another great thing, to add to that, of course,

is an amazing product that every single filmmaker

should know about, ultra slime.

This was invented in 1984 for "Gremlins" and "Ghostbusters."

Venkman, what happened? Are you okay?

He slimed me.

Oh! That's "Ghostbusters" slime?

-Yes. -Can I touch it?

Yes, you can stick your whole hand in there, if you want.

"It slimed me, Ray."

And you can tint this any color, and it could be ecto-plasm.

It could be blood. Yeah.

Sylvia: So it's like a final touch for it.

Mickey: For "Dead Hooker in a Trunk,"

you guys kind of took a different approach

to the epic finale sequence.

You want to tell us how you made that one?

We didn't know how to make the dick,

and somebody had gifted me a dildo.

-And, uh... -Oh.

Was it floppy at least? Or...? You know what?

It wasn't, but it only needed to really stick out of the pants.

It had -- I don't know how we got it

to bounce in the one thing that we did it.

-Yeah. -Uh-huh, yeah.

I think that was God himself being, like, "This is the shot."

Man: And X marks the spot.

And you probably didn't even need to put pubic hairs

on yours, right? It had --- Well, you know what?

It makes such a difference.

-But it does. It just -- -Oh. Oh.

-It brings it to life. -Look at this fella here.

Hair and slime brings everything to life.

Are there any two better things in the world

besides hair and slime? No, no.

And together -- together, they're the best.

-They are the absolute best. -Yes, yes, yeah.

Janet: Do you have any painting tips?

Let's say this started, like, just a plain white dick?

-Mm-hmm. -Yeah.

You'd go ahead and maybe start with some red splotches...

Red?...because we have all that red underneath our skin...

-Oh. -Oh.

...because our skin tone, like, might be --

Like, to take you from just white

to, like, your skin tone... Yeah.

...that could be, 10, 12, 13 different colors

because we got a little bit of blue in us,

a little bit of red, and then usually,

like, you'll haze it with kind of,

like, a rice paper white-ish to kind of seal it all in.

-Oh, wow. -So it's just --

Every little detail that you can add

brings another level of realism.

Well, thanks, Jim.

That was more about silicone dicks

than I ever needed to know. Any time.

Can I -- Can I take these dicks home?

The Soskas dive into some pretty dark territory

in their film "American Mary,"

but is there anybody who would actually want to have

that body modification done for them?

My next guest is a world-renowned body modifier

and the inventor of the tattooed eyeball.

Without further ado, Luna Cobra.

So, guys, thank so much for being with me today.

I have to admit, I know absolutely nothing

about the body modification community.

That's okay. That's why we're here.

And so you invented the art of tattooing eyeballs.

Is that right? I'm the inventor

of full color on the sclera. Okay.

So it hadn't been done before where someone fully colored

the white part of the eye,

so that's what I call the eyeball tattoo and my invention.

11 years ago, my friend posted a photo.

He had photoshopped his eyes blue, like the movie "Dune."

Did you see that? Oh, of course.

-Okay. -Absolutely.

All right. So the blue eyes from "Dune."

I can't see him yet, but he's very close now.

He was a big fan, and he photoshopped his eyes like that.

And as soon as I saw the photo, I was just really struck by it,

and I thought, "Wow, it looks amazing."

You know, I love sci-fi, and I love things like that.

About a year after he had photoshopped it, I said,

"Hey, you know, I've been looking into this a lot.

I'm really interested in it.

You know, would you like to do it?"

He said, "Oh, well, that's really crazy.

Let's see if you want to do two other people before me..."Mickey: Right.

"...and then I'll do it." I said, "Okay.

Well, we can trial different examples."Sure.

"And we could do this all in one day," and that's what we did.

I actually called my parents just before I did it.

My father is a physician, and my mom is a surgical tech

and a medical illustrator. Okay.

And so her knowledge of anatomy is probably even greater

than my brother, who's a plastic surgeon,

and so called mom and talked it over with her.

She was like, "This is really crazy,

but, you know, this, this, and that." And --

And how long does a process like that take?

It doesn't take long.

I mean, it's, like -- like, literally a couple minutes.

And then that's it. But then what we do is we wait.

It took my eye a month to heal, and then I could get touch-ups.

I am, admittedly, a tremendous hypochondriac,

and so was there ever a point in time

where you were worried, like,

"What if this goes wrong? What if I go blind?"

you know, anything like that?

-No. -No?

No, because I knew who I was going to.

-Aww, thanks, man. -Aww, hey.

It's true, though.

It's true because I was like, "Yo, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to go to the person that started it all."

And now that I've done this for 20 years,

I feel very responsible for anyone that comes to me.

And often I'll choose clients --

like, if the client seems unwell,

or I think it's going to ruin their life

or something like that, I won't do it,

because I feel like, you know, we're making a commitment

to each other in a way there...

Sure....you know, practitioner and client,

so I just want to make sure that everyone's okay

and that I don't hurt anyone. Right.

So I'm think about that the entire time.

Do you have a lot of imitators

who have taken your craft and done it?

Unfortunately, yeah, and that's led to blindness worldwide.Really?

-Yeah. -Yeah.

Inoculations where they have to remove the entire eye.

This has happened in multiple countries.

I mean, we're talking, like, almost any artist

that does it is imitating.

Almost any artist that does it is imitating.

I haven't trained anyone to do this,

and I certainly haven't given everyone,

you know, my 10 years of --

It's now been 10 years that I've been doing it,

so I've been collecting research and altering my methods

because, "Okay, well, this person, I did this.

How are they years later? This is why.

How can I change that?" Things like that.

And so I haven't given that to anyone.

So everyone is kind of just shooting from the hip here.

-Wow. -And I would never have done it

if I didn't have an entire team of medical professionals.

Can you list kind of the services that you could provide

for someone coming to you, or is it more a unique

case-by-case basis of someone arrives,

and they say, "I want this done to me. Can you do that?"

Both.

I'd say my most common things that I do are eyeball tattooing,

ear pointing, tongue splitting, and various scarification.

When you have clients come in,

do all of them tell you their reasons

why they want something changed?

Some do, and some don't. I don't ask.Okay.

I don't want to put anyone on the spot

or make anyone feel uncomfortable,

and it doesn't affect me, really, anyway.Sure.

But sometimes it's a really positive story.

When I went to him to get my eyes done, like,

I didn't originally have a purpose, you know,

and this way, like, after I was in a wheelchair.

And after I got my eyes done, when I looked in the mirror,

I felt way better.

Like, for the first time since I got shot, like,

I didn't see just, like, disabled me.No.

-I felt more complete, you know? -Wow.

So I didn't go in for a reason, but, like, yeah, it was a very --

But you found a reason because of that.Yeah, it was very therapeutic for me.

Wow.A lot of people find that it's therapeutic...

That's very fascinating....because they're taking control of their life, in a way.

-Exactly. -Yeah.

One really interesting case,

a guy who just had a few tattoos

wanted me to cut the tops of his ears off,

so I was like okay, that's really neat.

And I was with someone who asked him, "Hold on a second. Why?"

And then he gave us the whole story.

So his ears didn't stick out that much,

but they were kind of a different shape,

and I guess he was teased as a youth about it all the time.

Although he was an adult now, he couldn't get rid of that.

It was still in him, and so every time

he looked in the mirror, he saw it,

and he didn't like it, how they stuck out,

so he just wanted to trim the tops.

And so he figured this would make him happy,

and I actually talked to him a few months

after he got it done, and he loved it.

He was like, "You know, it's so great.

I walk past the mirror, and I don't feel weird.

I just feel me." Yeah.

It was almost like a payment for me, in a way...Sure.

...the fact this person now feels better,

like, it's incredible. Right.

Do you have any sort of advice for someone watching this

who thinks that they want to go down this route

and have something done to them?

Yeah, my advice would be, you know,

take a long hard look at it and really see

if you could find a plastic surgeon to do what you want.

People really have to understand,

if they're looking for any type of body modification

that goes away from standard tattoo or piercing,

anything outside of that, you got to understand

that, "A," if you're having something removed

or if you're getting stitches

or you're getting anesthetic in some way,

that over 99% of the population of "body mod artists" worldwide

have no medical training of any kind.

-99%? Oof. -Yes, worldwide.

-And this should scare people. -Yeah.

And a lot of people don't know that.

It's often a little bit like grooming,

where it happens that a client

will contact one of these people.

Maybe they meeting them at a night club or something else.

Maybe they party with them.

They're doing drugs or what have you,

and the person says, "Oh, no.

I can do that body mod, no problem."

-Wow, that's -- -It's really wild, and, really,

that's why we're so desperate for legislation

and to get some rules on the books here

so that more can people can just start

going to surgeons for their surgical work and not go to,

you know, a hair dresser, which happens, you know,

or a guy at a bar or something like that.

Well, I mean, guys, this has been extraordinarily insightful.

I've learned quite a bit.

Thank you so much for teaching me a little about it.

Yeah, my pleasure.

And I really appreciate you being on the show.Yeah.

-Soskas? -I almost forgive them for it.

Ripping your dick off?For ripping my entiredick off.

-Oh, well, it happens. -Fucking vicious, man.

Yeah, but "American Mary" is great. Yeah.

-Wonderful practical effects. -That's true.

Speaking of practical effects, I got a savage stack for you --

makeup effects, practical effects, bloody stuff,

head explosions, gnarly stuff.

Have you ever seen "Society"?

Don't worry. You'll get your share.

We're all going to get our share.

No, but everyone fucking talks about it.

Sam: Well, directed by Brian Yuzna, who is best known as producing

a lot of Stuart Gordon's films...Okay.

...this is a holy grail of special makeup effects

with one of my favorite on-screen credits for it,

"Surrealistic special makeup effects

by Screaming Mad George." Whoa.

This move climaxes in one of the most insane,

one of the gnarliest scenes of makeup effects

and shunting you'll ever see. What else?

Next up, we got Shudder exclusive "Jordskott."

This is a series from Sweden.

It starts as a mystery about a missing child

and goes to a place of really dark fairy-tale worlds,

and there's some really great, wonderful makeup effects

where branches and plants

are kind of seeping out of people's skin.

That sounds awesome.

Let's talk a bit more about classics.

One of the greatest American independent horror films

of all time is Don Coscarelli's "Phantasm."

Oh, hell yeah.

Nightmarish and totally nuts,

this film introduced the Tall Man, right?

-Right. -But also the sphere.

All I know about the sphere is that it looks awesome

and that blades come through it and maybe go into people.

That is all you need to know,

and when you see the sphere go into someone,

the fountain of blood that comes out of it

is going to blow your mind.

-Let's talk new-school effects. -Okay.

A lot of people talk about, you know,

where have all the makeup effects gone, right?

"Deathgasm."

Man: You know that evil heavy metal

that your parents hate you listening to?

Oh, baby.

Filmed out of New Zealand, this is heavy-metal horror.

And its director, Jason Lei Howden,

comes from Weta Workshop,

which a lot of people know mainly through

Peter Jackson's films. Yeah.

They think of "Lord of the Rings,"

the think of heavy digital visual effects.

Weta was founded when Peter Jackson was working on films

like, what, "Dead Alive."

-"Bad Taste." -"Meet the Feebles."

Oh, shit.All those guys, they don't get to do

a lot of the bloody stuff anymore, right?

"Deathgasm" brings those dudes into the fold

'cause Jason Lei Howden comes from that family,

and it's old school,

it's Sam Raimi style, and it's cool as hell.

Frank.

Next up, and finally, an achievement in makeup effects

with Bob Keen and "Hellraiser," right?Wow, yeah.

So based on Clive Barker's novella,

best horror films not only of the '80s

but probably of all time.

The introduction of an an icon in Pinhead,

who's really only in the movie for like six minutes

but has such a striking look

designed by Clive Barker and Bob Keen

and applied by Bob Keen onto Doug Bradley, it's unmissable.

It's still nightmarish.

It's one of the greatest bits of movie monsters you'll ever see.

Now I guess I'm just going to go home and nurse myself

as I watch these terrifying practical effects.

I thank you, Sam, because, in a world

where it's really easy to do digital effects,

these are what's valuable.

Jesus wept.

Thank you so much again to the Soska twins

for carving up "The Core,"

but, next time, I will be sitting with my legs crossed

for the entire show.

Oh, yeah.

That's better.

Can I get some more ice over here?